San Gimignano

San Gimignano is a small town in Tuscany, which is quite popular with tourists. By the way, when we hear the phrase "popular with tourists", we come to this place in the morning. This time we were in the old town at 8:30 am and walked alone for about an hour. At 9:30 am the streets were already crowded with tourists.

The town became famous due to family defensive towers built in the XI-XIII centuries. This is not a unique phenomenon for Italy - for example, two similar towers are symbols of Bologna. Currently San Gimignano has 14 towers. Some of them have a height of 50 meters and you can climb to the top.

While reaching the old town, don't hurry to go inside. There's a nice photo point just several hundred meters from the parking place (look at the map below).

Getting there: The nearest airports are in Pisa and Florence. The nearest railway station is Poggibonsi (13 km), then take a bus #130 to San Gimignano (4-5 euros). The town can be reached from Siena by bus #130 (5-8 euros, 1.5 hours). Look here for map and schedule of bus routes in the Siena region. From Florence (bus station near the railway station) you can also go by bus (1.5 hours, 7-8 euros) which runs every hour. You may need to change in Poggibonsi. So, leave your bus and in 10-30 minutes take a bus #130 to San Gimignano.